Python-Jupyter Notebook Tutorial 1 – Introduction to Python and Setup

This is the first in the series of beginner-to-expert tutorials and Python and Jupyter Notebook. In this tutorial (Python-Jupyter Notebook Tutorial 1), we would cover the following topics:

1. About Python Programming Language
2. Why You Should Learn Python?
3. What is Jupyter Notebook?
4. How to Set up Python and Jupyter Notebook
5. About This Tutorial
6. Quiz on Tutorial 1

1. About Python Programming Language

I would like to let you know some basic things about the Python programming Language.

First, Python is an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) Language similar to Java and C++. Also It is an interpreted language similar to Ruby. This means that the program can be interpreted line by line as it is typed in much the same way you run command on the command prompt. Then it is a general purpose programming language, which means it can serve for a wide variety of applications.

A bit of history. Python was developed by a Dutch programmer called Guido Van Rossum in the early 90s.

2. Why You Should Learn Python?

So the question is why do you need to choose Python over other languages? There are whole lot of reasons, but I would just mention 5 of them

a. Python is easy to learn. So you don’t need to have a programming background to learn python. You can actually start writing python programs after 3 months of learning

b. You can do everything with Python. Yes!. I mean everything programming. You can build applications, develop websites, write games, create machine learning models, perform data analytics etc.

c. Python IDE is Free:  IDE means Integrated Development Environment which is the application used to write a program. IDEs normally include a compiler. So you don’t need to pay anything to anyone. You simply download the tools and start writing programs

d. Python has a large Community: This means that if you have challenges, there are a python programmers out there to help you out.

e. Frameworks Available for Free: Frameworks are software components that have been developed and made available to programmers to use in there development process. So if you want to build a web application, you can easily use Django web framework to help you take care of the basic thing. And so on

3. What is Jupyter Notebook?

Jupyter notebook is an application that you can used to write applications and be compile your code on a web interface and share documents that includes your program. With Jupyter Notebook, you can write your program, run it and have the output together with the program. You can change the code and see how it affects the output in real-time. Jupyter Notebook includes codes, html, data and graphic.

We would see how it works later in the tutorial.

4. How to Set up Python and Jupyter Notebook

You can set up Jupyter notebook separately after you have installed python. However, the recommended way to set up both is to download and install Anaconda. Now, what is anaconda? Anaconda is a distribution of python that included Jupyter notebook. So this ensures that everything is set up once.

You can download Anaconda from this link: Anaconda for Windows, Mac and Linux

5. About This Tutorial

This is the first in the Series of Python-Jupyter Notebook Tutorials. It’s an introduction that gets you ready for what we are going to cover in this Tutorial.

What you need to do now before the next tutorial, is to download and install Anaconda.

Also note the following about this tutorial:

• It is a practical tutorial which means that with each lessons comes a python session
• Each lesson would be released either once or twice a week
• Each lesson ends with a Quiz which you are expected to take
• We provide a corresponding video tutorial for each lesson

6. Quiz on Tutorial 1

1. Who developed the Python Programming Language? (a) Bill Gates (b) Guido Van Rosum (c) Steve Jobs (d) Larry Ellison
2. What is meant by OOP?
3. What is Anaconda?
4. What is a Framework?
5. What is meant by an Interpreted Language?

Please leave a comment if this has been informative for you.